http://shelf-life.ew.com/2011/01/03/huc … it/?hpt=T2
What do you all think about this? When we read it in school, it had "the n word" in it, yet nobody seemed to have a major issue with it, even the black students. We all knew that it was simply what they said back in the days of Mark Twain's writing.
One commenter on the article pointed out that to not show exactly what people thought back then basically kills the novel's effectiveness as a criticism of slavery. Hell, at the end of the book Huck ends up helping Jim.
Who knows, maybe I just don't "get it" because I'm not black so I'll never know how it feels to hear/see the word 'nigger' (even though a good amount of the music that kids listen to today contains copious use of the word). But I just think that this edit is like saying "nobody ever said 'nigger' in those days." If we don't know the origins of the word and why it's so awful, then how can people be expected to stop using it?
What do you all think about this? When we read it in school, it had "the n word" in it, yet nobody seemed to have a major issue with it, even the black students. We all knew that it was simply what they said back in the days of Mark Twain's writing.
One commenter on the article pointed out that to not show exactly what people thought back then basically kills the novel's effectiveness as a criticism of slavery. Hell, at the end of the book Huck ends up helping Jim.
Who knows, maybe I just don't "get it" because I'm not black so I'll never know how it feels to hear/see the word 'nigger' (even though a good amount of the music that kids listen to today contains copious use of the word). But I just think that this edit is like saying "nobody ever said 'nigger' in those days." If we don't know the origins of the word and why it's so awful, then how can people be expected to stop using it?
